By RAY KELLY
A new urgency is invigorating the crowdfunding campaign to finish The Other Side of the Wind after several potential matching offers were identified in Europe.
Thirty days remain to raise $1 million on Indiegogo to engage investors to match this revised goal. When combined, producers will have reached the original goal of $2 million needed to complete Orson Welles’ last movie.
The Other Side of the Wind co-producer Filip Jan Rymsza brought the fundraising effort to the 68th Cannes Film Festival two weeks ago.
“The announcement of our efforts to finish Orson’s last film was met with much excitement. Over 2,300 contributors have joined our Indiegogo campaign thus far, raising over $245,000. That said, we hoped we would be further along in our first 30 days,” Rymsza told Wellesnet. “Several potential outside investors have presented us with an opportunity, if we reach $1 million in funding they will match that amount. With that in mind, and with 30 days remaining, we have adjusted our crowdfunding goal accordingly. There is more to do and we hope the enthusiasm continues and film lovers join us in this now urgent campaign.”
At Cannes, Rymsza explained in interviews with the media the need to show potential distributors edited footage struck from the negative, and not scenes from the decades-old 40-minute workprint left behind by Welles.
“That’s why this Indiegogo campaign is necessary, because it gives us the means to go to distributors and say, ‘this is what the finished product is going to look like.’ Whether that’s a sequence or the finished film, that depends on who and at what point in time,” Rymsza told FilmFestivals.com
Rymsza, and co-producers Frank Marshall and Jens Koethner Kaul secured the partial ownership rights for The Other Side of the Wind that were held by Les Films de l’Astrophore and the late Mehdi Boushehri. Agreements were reached last year with Beatrice Welles, who heads the Estate of Orson Welles, and Kodar, who inherited the late director’s ownership.
Affonso Gonçalves has been chosen to edit The Other Side of the Wind. Gonçalves is best known as the editor of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Winter’s Bone. Recently, he earned an Emmy Award for his work on HBO’s True Detective.
In addition the workprint, Welles left behind scripts and detailed editing notes. Both Marshall and director Peter Bogdanovich worked on the 1970s shoot and will be involved in the editing process.
Principal photography wrapped on The Other Side of the Wind in 1976. The film takes place at the 70th birthday party of director Jake Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to complete a youth-oriented comeback during the rise of New Hollywood. The party is attended by young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Bogdanovich), hangers-on, critics and movies freaks – many of whom are patterned after people in Welles’ life. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party. His final hours are recounted in footage shot at the party, interspersed with scenes from his unfinished comeback movie.
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